Books

[ThePumisher]

Do you read the originally-English books in English or German Pum?

I read all of them in german. As far as i remember the only three books i have read in english are Requiem For A Dream, The Hobbit & Trainspotting

[sandelic]

Interesting, I don't like reading books in Croatian, so many things get lost, even in best of translations, so I prefer original, where available

Recently I found book by Umberto Eco, titled Belief of Nonbelief?,  which is a dialogue Umberto had with Carlo Maria Martini, cardinal at Holy See, which started as a series of articles, first Martini published article in some Italian newspapers, and got Umberto, declared atheist, response which in turn lead to a series of articles that deal with religion, abortion, ethics...

Way that dialogue was carried is something to aspire to, since it's not every day you get to see a Catholic cardinal and declared atheist  carry a civil, respectful and, above all, brilliant dialogue that touches upon so many painful subject both to men of religion and thinkers like Eco, and from which you can learn quite a lot.

There is even a 'legend' that people wrote to editors of Italian papers to request both from Martini and Eco to try to be little less 'heavy', since they found text quite philosophical and, at times, hard to follow, but worry not; while book is not a light read, it's not Summa Theologica

[sandelic]

Recently read this brilliant work by Bertrand Russell (original title: History of western philosophy):
For those who are interested in philosophy, but don't really know where to start, this is a good place. He summarizes around 2500 years worth of philosophical ideas and how they influenced and were influenced by social, cultural, scientific and political ideas.

This is great recommendation, Stefan,  just reading this, it offers a 'bird-eye' view of philosophical thought, something not easily found in literature, thanks!

[sandelic]

My kindle is longing for some new material, I would very much appreciate any recommendation, if anyone have some

[Wolkenkrabber]

My kindle is longing for some new material, I would very much appreciate any recommendation, if anyone have some

THIS came out yesterday. Not that I've read it yet...(review HERE.)

[Stefan]

My kindle is longing for some new material, I would very much appreciate any recommendation, if anyone have some

I don't know whether they're available as ebooks, but here are some of my recent picks:
   
   

[sandelic]

Guys, thanks for your suggestions!
Books you recommended are quite interesting, no doubt I'll have a blast reading them.
I skimmed through reviews on Amazon, I think I'll start with 'The Philosopher's Toolkit'.

[sandelic]

Did any of you knew that there is a 6th book in Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy trilogy?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Another_Thing..._(novel)

Not written by Adams, but reviews are really good and I'm hyped!

I cannot believe that I overlooked it, and can't wait to start reading it... 

[Stefan]

Might be a great reason to start the series all over again

[Stefan]

So, while I've been reading mostly popular science, philosophy and non-fiction in recent years, I also love to read fantasy/Sci-Fi.
Recently I finished "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jesmin:



And oh dear goodness, is it great. The author builds a fantastic but believeable world, complete with history, culture and conflicts, and inhabits it with great characters (in contrast to, for instance, J.R.R. Martin, the focus is only on a few people, so their storylines are better to follow throught the book).
The book is the first part of a trilogy, all of which have won the prestigious Hugo Award btw, I really look forward to reading the next books in the near future!

[sandelic]

Interesting, I'll take a look at it, especially because you praise it so much.

Btw, I just finished The Blade Itself by British author Joe Abercrombie, it's first book in trilogy called The First Law.

While setting reminds of medieval Europe, characters are surprisingly modern in way they think and behave. Story itself is full of gritty scenes and violence, as one could expect from that setting.
But book really is character driven, which is odd. Almost always books like this are story driven.
I can't wait to start reading 'Before they are hanged' - book two. I'll hold my judgement until I've read whole trilogy. Suffice to say I'm intrigued to see how it'll end. Would recommend.

[ThePumisher]

[Charco]

Did any of you knew that there is a 6th book in Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy trilogy?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Another_Thing..._(novel)

Not written by Adams, but reviews are really good and I'm hyped!

I cannot believe that I overlooked it, and can't wait to start reading it... 

Hey Sandelic, did you get around to this? What did you think of it if so?

I'm currently on book 5 of The Expanse series. So far so good, about a 1/3 of the way through, so things are starting to pick up storywise.

[WhiteNoise]

I'm currently on book 5 of The Expanse series. So far so good, about a 1/3 of the way through, so things are starting to pick up storywise.

Oh, hell yes. I would love to read that book again for the first time.

[sandelic]

Hey Sandelic, did you get around to this? What did you think of it if so?

I'm currently on book 5 of The Expanse series. So far so good, about a 1/3 of the way through, so things are starting to pick up storywise.

Sorry, didn't see your post.
Yeah, I've read it. Storywise, it's clever, funny, even dark at times. But it's painfully obvious that someone else finished a book Douglas Adams started.

I'm not trying to say that job was badly done; if anything, Eoin Colfer did impossible, he managed to emulate Adam's style pretty closely and did us all a great service by finishing Adams' book. Otherwise, we might never see it in any form. It's much, much better written that Salmon of doubt, that really is a hot mess of unfinished 3th book in Dirk Gently series.

But it's different from your usual HHGTTG books. It's pacing is different. There is little of that feverish insanity that imbues much of Adams' work. Truth to be told, even later entries in HHGTTG lost some of that hilarious insanity and became quite mellow, like in So long and thanks for all the fish, so even that is not much of a critique. If that is not a problem for you, you'll enjoy it.